The late South African Reggae Star, Lucky Dube, once made the following profound statements in one of his tracks: ‘It takes a million people to build a record reputation, but it takes one stupid fool to destroy everything that has been done. The world knows your nation as a nation of drug lords, everyone blames your nation for the destruction of the world. The world knows your people as the most violent in the world, everyone around you will always keep his eye open. Take it upon yourself to restore your nation’s dignity…………’
The fight against illegal mining and the open destruction of our lands and water bodies has now taken a national character. Civil society operators have joined the fight albeit too late, the Media have taken the frontline. The voices of reason against this fight have been amplified and more sane minds have joined the fight. I was very happy when various sector Ministries met and engaged the Media to support the fight against this epidemic. I saw many of my former colleagues and seniors from the inky fraternity. I am very happy an eight member inter-ministerial committee has been set up to deal with the problem.
I had suggested something to that effect in this column last week. I still think that the security Ministries of Interior and Defence should have been added to the committee. The situation at hand, in my view, should be considered as a national security issue. There is no way the eight named inter-ministerial committee members can on their own enforce whatever decisions they arrive at after careful and diligent assessment of the situation. We need to use the security agencies to swiftly and ruthlessly deal with this epidemic before it afflicts us all.
I was very sad, however, when I read what Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) said at the meeting with the media practitioners.
‘I went to Cote d’Ivoire last week only to be welcomed by the unpleasant news about how the effects of galamsey in Ghana have resulted in the pollution of some of their water sources.’ They find it difficult to even treat the water to make it wholesome, and this is bad for us as a country because it paints a bad image about us.’ I am just putting myself in the shoes of Prof. Frimpong Boateng.
Imagine as a Minister from Ghana, visiting a counterpart Minister in a neighbouring country for whatever interactions and being told that as a result of the poor management of water resources back in his country, the host country is seriously challenged with the provision of healthy potable water for its citizens.
Indeed, rivers meander to their final destinations through various countries. The sources of rivers, in this case the countries, have a right to the use of those rivers as much as the countries the rivers traverse during their long winding journeys into the seas eventually. International conventions oblige all nations that have common use of rivers to respect the rights of other nations in the use of this all important natural resources.
Should the people of Burkina Faso decide to do anything to any of the tributaries or the main Volta River that will negatively impact on our lives, Ghana as a nation has the right to protest to an international body to address the situation. Over the past few years, the Volta River has not ‘performed’ very well in Ghana in terms of its flows. Consequently, Akosombo and the Kpong Dams have not been able to generate as much electric power as the nation expects from them. Ironically, Burkina Faso, which is more Sahelian than Ghana, gets more water into its Dam reservoir to the point that it almost every year spills excess water from its Dam to protect it. This exercise comes to us with its negative consequences though.
What that means is that, Burkina Faso is better managing its ‘portion’ of the Volta Rivers than Ghana is doing. The various tributaries of the Volta River are more silted in Ghana because of unregulated human activities than in Burkina Faso, else one cannot fathom why the semi-Sahelian country would have more water in those rivers than us, in Ghana. The net effect is that our hydro sources of electricity generations are failing. There are reports also that the Bui Dam is in danger of functioning efficiently because of the damage being inflicted on the Bui river by the same galamsey operators.
The open destruction of the Birim, Offin, Pra, Ankobra and Tano rivers among others by galamsey operators without thinking of their long term effects on this nation, simply beats my imagination. That we have a government entrusted with the powers to protect all the resources available to us as a people, use them to meet our needs but in a manner that allows future generations to also have them for their use; and that over the last eight years, the criminals and nation wreckers could openly use unorthodox methods to dredge our rivers and water bodies for gold without any consideration for the damning effect we are all suffering today.
While admitting that galamsey did not begin with the eight year period of the Mills-Mahama administration, the operators did a deadly blow to this nation within the period of the Mills-Mahama era with such unadulterated impunity. The occasional efforts by the security agencies to clamp down on them were frustrated by politicians in high places.
Equipment used by the operators which are seized by the security agencies during occasional swoops on them are quickly returned to the owners on the orders of some politicians from above. Indeed, that the reports indicate the involvement of some politicians in these heinous acts cannot be disputed. We sit down for a few people to arrogate to themselves the power to inflict such painful damage to our collective survival in the process of exploiting part of our natural resources for their survival. In the unregulated melee, not only have they caused havoc to our collective existence, but we have exported the result of our indiscipline to a neighbouring country.
Today, Ghana’s reputation in the eyes of our neighbours in Cote d’Ivoire has diminished on account of the fact that our irresponsible attitudes towards a collective natural resource, river, is making life difficult for them. They are blaming us for the ‘unwholesome’ potable water flowing into their homes. While the government of Cote d’Ivoire is very worried about the poor quality of water it is giving to its people, we in Ghana did not seem to be worried about this suicidal journey we embarked on so many years ago.
The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) kept on complaining about the turbidity of the raw water they had to treat for the consumption of the public, and there was dead silence. Their production costs rose and kept rising, and we took no actions. With no alternative, the poor Ghanaian had to use whatever quality of water that came his way. The national security did not see the situation as dire.
The problem was left with the District Assemblies to deal with when they did not have the human resources and the material resources to manage it. In the process, everybody who matters in the areas of operations of galamsey became compromised. The operators had a field day.
It is heartening that we have woken up and acting on it. We have our reputation as a nation to protect in the eyes of our neighbours. We have the responsibility to ensure that the people of this country are offered clean water to protect them from water related diseases. We have a responsibility to keep the rivers so serene and lively as we meet them and bequeath same to the next generation which also has the responsibility to bequeath same to the generation after it.
This is the time to ride on the shoulders of public anger and displeasure to deal a deadly blow to this epidemic once and for all. The destruction of our waters is a siege that has to be repulsed with ruthless vigour. It does not matter those involved. What matters is protecting the future.
Three tots, Daavi.